Quinn's clutch shooting leads Heat over Pistons

Quinn made a 3-pointer late in overtime to give Miami the lead,
took a charge to preserve it, then capped his career-best
26-point night with a running jumper with 6.8 seconds left as
the Heat beat the Detroit Pistons 102-96 Wednesday night in the
regular-season finale for both clubs.

The game meant nothing in the standings to either team, but
Quinn played like it was Game 7.

"A lot of us guys, we haven't been in that situation much this
season," Quinn said. "So to be out there in that situation, it
was a lot of fun."

Michael Beasley scored 12 of his 22 points in the first quarter
for Miami, but left midway through the third quarter after
getting hit near the right eye by the Pistons' Amir Johnson and
did not return. He was not seriously injured, and the Heat
expect him to be able to practice Thursday.

Kwame Brown finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds for Detroit.

"We didn't want to come out here and have a lackluster
performance just because the game was meaningless," Brown said.
"We wanted to come out and play hard so that we could get a win
to take us over into the playoffs."

When the Eastern Conference playoffs open this weekend, No. 5
Miami will be at No. 4 Atlanta, and No. 8 Detroit takes on No. 1
Cleveland.

The Heat trailed by six with 3:57 left in regulation, before
Quinn scored 12 points and made Miami's last four baskets,
including three from 3-point range.

"He's got some guts, I'll tell you that," Heat coach Erik
Spoelstra said. "He was making virtually every play for us down
at the end."

Jason Maxiell scored 16 for Detroit, as did Will Bynum. Rodney
Stuckey added 15 for the Pistons.

Mario Chalmers, who started all 82 games in his rookie season,
finished with 10 assists for the Heat. Jamaal Magloire added 14
points and nine rebounds for Miami, and James Jones finished
with 13 points.

"We had to make up for some of our missing pieces," Magloire
said. "The second unit had to step up."

Just as he did Tuesday night in Atlanta, Wade sat on the bench
in a suit, resting up for the postseason. He finished averaging
30.2 points, becoming Miami's first scoring champion - 1.8
points better than Cleveland's LeBron James, last year's top
scorer. Wade's previous best finish in the league scoring race
came in Miami's championship season of 2005-06, when he was
fifth.

Wade was among several regulars on both sides who were held out.

Miami (43-39) also played without Jermaine O'Neal, Jamario Moon
and Udonis Haslem, who will have stitches removed from his right
thumb in time for the playoff opener.

Detroit (39-43, its worst record in nine seasons) sat Richard
Hamilton and Antonio McDyess, while holding Tayshaun Prince -
who played in his 494th straight game and started for the
league-best 437th consecutive contest - to 9 minutes, the same
amount of time that Rasheed Wallace got before taking the rest
of the night off.

"The only reason I wanted to sit him was if a guy got hurt in
that situation, you'd kind of second-guess it. But he missed a
lot of games and doesn't feel comfortable with where his game is
right now," Detroit coach Michael Curry said. "So it's kind of a
thing with him needing to get out there and get some stuff
going."

For Spoelstra, his 43rd victory helped him pass Pat Riley and
Stan Van Gundy for the most in Miami history by a coach in his
first season with the franchise. Riley was 42-40 in 1995-96; Van
Gundy was 42-40 in 2003-04, Wade's rookie season.

The mood for the Heat was far more festive than in last season's
finale, when Miami had the NBA's worst record at 15-67 and
Riley's Hall of Fame coaching career came to a close.

"You look around the league, usually the teams that are in the
basement one year are going to likely not be a playoff team that
next year," Spoelstra said. "They're going to be somewhere still
in the lottery, sometimes for several years, which is a very
miserable existence. The fact that we were able to turn it
around and matter as a franchise, I think is rewarding."